'Scholarly cowboy' invaluable as appraiser on hit PBS show

Published 11:26 am, Thursday, February 7, 2013

Bruce Shackelford appraises Sara Ayers Catawba pottery during an episode of “Antiques Roadshow.” His conclusion: The pottery, from around 1970, is worth $2,900 to $3,900.

Bruce Shackelford appraises Sara Ayers Catawba pottery during an episode of “Antiques Roadshow.” His conclusion: The pottery, from around 1970, is worth $2,900 to $3,900.

Photo: PBS

'Scholarly cowboy' invaluable as appraiser on hit PBS show

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

“Antiques Roadshow” has 150 expert appraisers of everything from dolls and jewelry to manuscripts and weaponry. One of those experts is San Antonio resident Bruce Shackelford, and if you have any tribal art or artifacts stashed away, he's the guy to tell you all about them.

“Bruce is one of my favorite cowboys around,” said “Antiques Roadshow” executive producer Marsha Bemko. “He's a scholarly cowboy. He knows his stuff.”

Shackelford has appraised American Indian items on the hit PBS series since its first season in 1997, when producers from WGBH in Boston needed experts for an episode that was filmed here. He is the Brown Foundation curator at the Witte Museum, and the call to participate in the show came just as a nationally touring exhibit he curated, “Thundering Hooves: Five Centuries of Horsepower in the American West,” closed.

“I said I'd do it, but I had always been consulting. I was never the guy on TV,” Shackelford said. “I wasn't thrilled about it.”

The show, now broadcasting its 17th season, is PBS' highest-rated series. Despite Shackelford's trepidation about being in front of the camera, Bemko says he's a natural.

Lifestyle Channel

“He's approachable and can talk to you in everyday terms about what you're learning about,” she said. “That kind of stuff is contagious when you're talking about history, because when someone loves what they're doing the way he does, it's not just a lesson anymore.”

Originally from Abilene, Shackelford's interest in art and history started in childhood. He grew up in a house with American art on the walls and heard stories from his grandmother about her next-door neighbors, who were members of the Parker family of Texas pioneers. He earned an art degree from the University of Texas and a master's degree in painting and video production from the University of Oklahoma, when he became especially interested in American Indian art.

“While I was in Oklahoma, I ran into another Texan, Lane Coulter, and every other weekend we'd get in the car and drive to Cheyenne country or Comanche country and go to little tribal museums and pawn shops to try to learn about this stuff,” Shackelford said.

He was the director of Creek Council House Museum in Okmulgee, Okla., which a focuses on the culture of the Muscogee Nation, for four years before returning to Texas.

Some of Shackelford's top “Antiques Roadshow” appraisals include a pair of Maria Martinez pots, made in San Ildefonso Pueblo, N.M., circa 1930, valued at $45,000 to $55,000; a pair of Miwok baskets, made in California circa 1905, valued at $16,000 to $24,000; and a three-piece collection of Great Basin baskets, made in Nevada circa 1900, valued at $60,000 to $75,000.

“It's easy to come up with a value,” Shackelford said. “The catch is knowing the cultural importance.”

After hearing generations' worth of family lore, sometimes Shackelford has to be the bearer of bad news: Many times items are fake or not historically or culturally significant.

But on the opposite end of the spectrum, sometimes items are so rare that there's no comparable market and a value cannot be assessed; these can include items made from parts of animals or plants that are now on endangered species lists.

“I've seen things so marvelous and rare,” he said. “The first 10 years I saw so many eagle feathers. People get upset because we won't put a value on it, but it's illegal because you can't sell it.”

Those are the segments that tend to be cut from the show, Shackelford said, especially if the person receiving that disappointing appraisal turns out to be “bad news” and needs a security escort from the building.

“Most people just want to know what they've got,” he said. “Even if they have something extremely valuable, they rarely want to sell. They just want to know what this thing is they've been dragging around their whole life.”

Shackelford is used to being on television now, and he enjoys pitching and filming on-location pieces that run between appraisal segments on the show. He said this season's Corpus Christi episode, which aired Jan. 7, was a standout experience.

“Piece after piece showed up that I thought was a lost thing,” he said. “I'd heard about it, I'd read about it, and all of a sudden there it was. I never would have seen them had I not been with the show.